Ways that numbered lists demonstrate the downfall of society
The newest Internet trend is page-list “journalism;” websites that have numbered lists followed by pictures or GIFs, all following some arbitrary category of useless drivel. This is the devil in disguise, also known as BuzzFeed.com (or Upworthy, or EliteDaily, and so on). The pages on these websites attempt to pass off as journalism, or news, or important information – all framed in a way that makes you think you need to see it.
These pages will more often than not actually include the words “need” or “important” within their title. One of the best examples of this is “The 29 most important chicken fingers of all time” (yes, this is a real BuzzFeed article). This language somehow makes the reader feel as though they’ll be missing something if they don’t click the link and read it; it plays on the human desire to fit in (the same way you’re asked about a movie, and you lie and say you’ve seen it when you really haven’t).
Next, the article will feature content ripped from somewhere else on the Internet, whether it be reddit, Tumblr, or otherwise. It is never original, it is never new, and it is never funny. All of it is recycled, taken from somewhere where you have probably seen before if you ever go anywhere on the Internet other than Facebook.
However, the true problem that resides within our obsession to read about “The 37 Worst Translated Movie Titles Ever” or “The Story of Egypt’s Revolution in Jurassic Park Gifs” is not the attempt to pass these stories off as journalism, but rather the way that these websites are a direct commentary on our priorities as a society. We are more interested in looking at pictures of the “25 Hunkiest Egyptian Protestors” than we are in truly learning something worthwhile, or educating ourselves on what is going on in the world around us.
Given the fact that our world is pretty awful lately with places like Syria, Russia, Ukraine, and Central African Republic committing genocides and other horrible violence against their citizens, it would be nice to see articles that inform people and promote action. This is, ironically, the worst part of these websites: when they do take an activist stance. Most guilty of this is Upworthy, which frequently features articles on current events. The problem lies in the fact that these websites are only attempting to rope you in and keep you, not to create change, and it’s painfully obvious. Every time a reader views an article on Upworthy about something that is happening in the world, a pop-up window asks you if you are against whatever atrocity the article is about, in a yes-or-no question, as if these problems have a simple yes-or-no answer.
This is the bane of our society. We feel that if we agree with something and sign some imaginary online “petition” against it, we’ve done our part. But we haven’t. We give our email address to Upworthy to say that we’re against “insert cause here” and we carry on with our lives, feeling as though we’d done our good deed for the day – but that problem does not go away. The best example of this is the video of the woman who undergoes extreme Photoshop modification to show how society has unrealistic expectations for women. This is a serious issue, but rather than doing something about it, we click the “yes” on that little pop-up window and feel like we’ve done our part. Then we share the video on Facebook and perpetuate this chain of non-action. What we need to do is actually understand how to actively fix issues in the world.
Agreeing with Upworthy’s pop-up does not end homophobia, sexism, genocide, racism, ableism, or any other prejudice, violence, or negativity. What ends these things is action, mobilization, education, and informing others so that they can join in with the cause. However, this type of informing needs to be done through a method that gets results, and that method is not a numbered BuzzFeed list.